Understanding that the outside world is really inside us and the inside world is really outside us will change everything. Both inside and outside. Why? "There is no out there out there", physicist John Wheeler said in his attempt to explain quantum physics. All we know is how we correlate with the world. We do not really know what the world is really like, uncorrelated with us. When we seem to experience an external world that is out there, independent of us, it is something we dream up. Modern neurobiology has reached the exact same conclusion. The visual world, what we see, is an illusion, but then a very sophisticated one. There are no colours, no tones, no constancy in the "real" world, it is all something we make up. We do so for good reasons and with great survival value. Because colors, tones and constancy are expressions of how we correlate with the world.

The merging of the epistemological lesson from quantum mechanics with the epistemological lesson from neurobiology attest to a very simple fact: What we percieve as being outside of us is indeed a fancy and elegant projection of what we have inside. We do make this projection as as result of interacting with something not inside, but everything we experience is inside. Is it not real? It embodies a correlation that is very real. As physicist N. David Mermin has argued, we do have correlations, but we do not know what it is that correlates, or if any correlata exists at all. It is a modern formulation of quantum pioneer Niels Bohr's view: "Physics is not about nature, it is about what we can say about nature".

So what is real, then? Inside us humans a lot of relational emotions exists. We feel affection, awe, warmth, glow, mania, belonging and refusal towards other humans and to the world as a whole. We relate and it provokes deep inner emotional states. These are real and true, inside our bodies and percieved not as "real states" of the outside world, but more like a kind of weather phenomena inside us. That raises the simple question: Where do these internal states come from? Are they an effect of us? Did we make them or did they make us? Love exists before us (most of us were conceived in an act of love). Friendship, family bonds, hate, anger, trust, distrust, all of these entities exist before the individual. They are primary. The illusion of the ego denies the fact that they are there before the ego consciously decided to love or hate or care or not. But the inner states predate the conscious ego. And they predate the bodily individual.

The emotional states inside us are very, very real and the product of biological evolution. They are helpful to us in our attempt to survive. Experimental economics and behavioral sciences have recently shown us how important they are to us as social creatures: To cooperate you have to trust the other party, even though a rational analysis will tell you that both the likelihood and the cost of being cheated is very high. When you trust, you experience a physiologically detectable inner glow of pleasure. So the inner emotional state says yes. However, if you rationally consider the objects in the outside world, the other parties, and consider their trade-offs and motives, you ought to choose not to cooperate. Analyzing the outside world makes you say no. Human cooperation is dependent on our giving weight to what we experience as the inner world compared to what we experience as the outer world.

Traditionally, the culture of science has denied the relevance of the inner states. Now, they become increasingly important to understanding humans. And highly relevant when we want to build artefacts that mimic us. Soon we will be building not only Artificial Intelligence. We will be building Artificial Will. Systems with an ability to convert internal decisions and values into external change. They will be able to decide that they want to change the world. A plan inside becomes an action on the outside. So they will have to know what is inside and outside. In building these machines we ourselves will learn something that will change everything: The trick of perception is the trick of mistaking an inner world for the outside world. The emotions inside are the evolutionary reality. The things we see and hear outside are just elegant ways of imagining correlata that can explain our emotions, our correlations. We don't hear the croak, we hear the frog.

When we understand that the inner emotional states are more real than what we experience as the outside world, cooperation becomes easier. The epoch of insane mania for rational control will be over. What really changes is they way we see things, the way we experience everything. For anything to change out there you have to change everything in here. That is the epistemological situation. All spiritual traditions have been talking about it. But now it grows from the epistemology of quantum physics, neurobiology and the building of robots. We will be sitting there, building those Artificial Will-robots. Suddenly we will start laughing. There is no out there out there. It is in here. There is no in here in here. It is out there. The outside is in here. Who is there?

I wonder how many people in this citylive in furnished rooms.Late at night when I look out at the buildingsI swear I see a face in every windowlooking back at me,and when I turn awayI wonder how many go back to their desksand write this down.(Leonard Cohen, The Spice-Box Of Earth)

"After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone'. He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below', and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one'. Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth'. But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air". (The Alphabet of Ben-Sirach)

"We're going to Richard Thompson's house today. Richard Thompson, who writes hard, honest, brilliant songs like 'She twists the knife again', 'I misunderstood' and 'Dad's gonna kill me'. The man who makes other luminaries' guitar playing seem pale and redundant…and there he is, in his front room, just sitting and playing the guitar like a normal person. He even owns most series of 'Friends' on DVD, for some reason this is surprising. Maybe they belong to someone else. We need to get going though, Mike the cab driver has tickets with his brother for the lunchtime football and it’s already 11.30am. Richard and his two singing playing band members, Judith and Debra, crush into the cab with guitar, leg-strapped bells and drum. The wordsheet is propped up tentatively on our knees but they don't really need it of course - they sing with ease and power and grace, it all just pours out. When the session is over, farewells are exchanged, and though time's run on, everyone seems to have really enjoyed it. Mike didn't even mind missing the football".

24 January 2009

NAME DROPPING

The name game: what to call the Obama's dog-to-be?

"President Barack Obama has willingly signed up for what has to be the toughest job in the history of the world. He is now responsible for (among a bazillion other things) reversing our country's 10.6 trillion-dollar deficit, creating new jobs for the more than 11 million U.S. citizens who are currently out of work, reigning in two mismanaged wars and selecting the perfect pup for the White House. Now that the Obama family is getting settled into their new digs at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (which likely includes a lot of smudging) and are beginning to peruse local shelters for their hypoallergenic world's best friend, I thought some of you opinionated types (...) might have suggestions for what Malia and Sasha should name their soon-to-be first pooch.

What do you think is the perfect name for the canine of change?" (aqui)

Cassie and I went to the cave and it looks great. 58 degrees but the humidity makes it feel like 72. I'm just going to play fifteen songs. My fifteen favorite ones. A dollar per song. Plus Arnett Hollow. I don't want to keep you underground for too long. Fall Creek Falls State Park State Lodge is great by the way. Yes I cancelled the South American shows. I'll have to see the ABC Countries another way. I guess I am moving over to another category. Screenwriting or Muckraking. I've got to move on. Can't be like all the careerists doncha know. I'm forty two and I know what to do. I'm a writer, see? Cassie is taking it the hardest. She's a fan and a player but she sees how happy i am with the decision. I always said we would stop before we got bad. If I continue to record I might accidentally write the answer song to Shiny Happy People. What, you thought I was going to hang on to the bitter end like Marybeth Hamilton?

love david"

... &...

"My Father, My Attack Dog

Now that the Joos are over I can tell you my gravest secret. Worse than suicide, worse than crack addiction: My father. You might be surprised to know he is famous, for terrible reasons. My father is a despicable man. My father is a sort of human molestor. An exploiter. A scoundrel. A world historical motherfucking son of a bitch. (sorry grandma) You can read about him here.

My life is so wierd. It's allegorical to the nth. My father went to college at Transylvania University. You see what I'm saying. A couple of years ago I demanded he stop his work. Close down his company or I would sever our relationship. He refused. He has just gotten worse. More evil. More powerful. We've been "estranged" for over three years. Even as a child I disliked him. We were opposites. I wanted to read. He wanted to play games. He is a union buster. When I got out of college I joined the Teamsters (the guards were union organized at the Whitney). I went off to hide in art and academia. I fled through this art portal for twenty years. In the mean time my Dad started a very very bad company called Berman and Company. He props up fast food/soda/factory farming/childhood obesity and diabetes/drunk driving/secondhand smoke. He attacks animal lovers, ecologists, civil action attorneys, scientists, dieticians, doctors, teachers. His clients include everyone from the makers of Agent Orange to the Tanning Salon Owners of America. He helped ensure the minimum wage did not move a penny from 1997-2007! The worst part for me as a writer is what he does with the english language. Though vicious he is a doltish thinker and his spurious editorials rely on doublethink and always with the Lashon Hara.

As I studied Judaism over the years, the shame and the shanda, grew almost too much. my heart was constantly on fire for justice. I could find no relief. This winter I decided that the SJs were too small of a force to ever come close to undoing a millionth of all the harm he has caused. To you and everyone you know. Literally, if you eat food or have a job, he is reaching you. I've always hid this terrible shame from you, the fan. The SJs have always stood autonomous and clear. Hopefully it won't contaminate your feelings about the work. My life has been riddled with Ibsenism. In a way I am the son of a demon come to make good the damage. Previously I thought, through songs and poems and drawings I could find and build a refuge away from his world. But there is the matter of Justice. And i'll tell you it's not just a metaphor. The desire for it actually burns. It hurts. There needs to be something more. I'll see what that might be.

DCB

if you want to know what evil Herr Attackdog is currently up to look here"

"The Obama family wants a puppy, but international events have just increased the complexity of the presidential dog adoption process. Former French President Jacques Chirac was attacked this week by his Maltese poodle, Sumo, who as it turned out had been on antidepressants and had been characterized as unpredictable. This incident put the Obama security team on high alert, and will now require any dog prospect to pass a full medical, psychological and psychiatric screening before being given the opportunity to soil the White House carpet. White House Chief Veterinarian Dr. Elliott Axelrod told reporters that every candidate for adoption will need to go through a full security check and a risk management evaluation of their breed before they can be approved.

'Someone just told me that Caroline Kennedy withdrew herself from Senate consideration because she didn't want to deal with the vetting process', Axelrod said. 'But she would still have a better chance getting named to the Senate than becoming First Dog, at this point'. Axelrod acknowledges that the process isn't perfect, and that a dog that passes all the security requirements might not appeal to Sasha and Malia‘s canine preferences. For that reason he has counseled that the First Family adopt fish instead. His press conference ended when a reporter asked to see the medical evaluation for former First Dog Barney, who attacked a reporter late in the Bush term. 'Those records are not available', he said. 'You are barking up the wrong tree if you are suggesting that the former president taught the dog a bite command and then suggested that the reporter use that particular word in front of the dog'". (aqui)

"At Caetano’s house C flips through a book of Pierre Verger’s photos of Bahia and Salvador from mid 20th century, and I am taken by a shot of this commercial district taken from Cidade Alta (the upper city). In this shot one can see the same grid of commercial buildings, but when the picture was taken they were all of moderate height, and all beautiful colonial edifices. “What a shame what has happened here”, I say. Caetano agrees, and says that this legacy of incredible architecture — which existed in numerous places all over Latin America — should have been treated “like a European City”. I think he means that many European cities — London, Milano, Torino, Brussels, Lyon — also have what were once commercial centers that emerged during a historical era, but no one would have dreamt of razing those centers and replacing them with steel, glass and concrete office towers. But in the Americas, North and South, that’s what mostly happened — except in a few isolated spots.

(...)

At Paulinha’s party and at Gilberto Gil's the next day the full rainbow of folks were present — dancing, drinking and chatting. C mentioned that she would make eye contact and say "hi" and "welcome" to guests of every hue and they smiled and responded in kind. Sad to say, this is not the usual situation in the States. Here everyone is just a little more relaxed around everyone else, whereas in the States when races meet there is always a slight tension, some fear, suspicion; and, from the Afro-American side, anger, envy, and resentment that colors everything. I’m generalizing, of course. We musicians don’t behave that way — at least in my dreams we don’t. The separation of worlds and the ghetto-ization of peoples — distinct music, food and culture — that exists up North and that poisons everything, is to a large extent much less prevalent here — but the racism still can’t be denied.

(...)

In the evening a small group heads over to Gilberto Gil’s house where his daughter is having a birthday party. Gil and Caetano and I are talking and Caetano goes off on one of his riffs — this one about how the German philosopher Schopenhauer made some surprising statements about the tropics and race. According to Cae, the philosopher claimed that humanity was originally black — as we emerged from the tropics in Africa. This is hard to dispute. Of course we were. Schopes continued to follow this line of reasoning, saying that black is therefore our default skin color, the “true” color of humanity, and that other colors or non-colors are therefore marginal — notably, and especially, white. He claimed that from a global perspective whites, especially blonde blue-eyed ones, are a fringe group that somehow managed to survive in the chilly and forbidding Northern climate. This didn’t go down all that well at the time with his countrymen". (vale a pena ler a totalidade do post e dos anteriores)